XClose

History

Home
Menu

Dr Yağmur Heffron

Yağmur is an archaeologist of ancient Anatolia whose work explores the convergence of material culture and textual history. Her research focuses on the religious history of Anatolia in the early second millennium B.C., particularly on issues of religious identity, ritual hybridity, and textual vs. material visibility of cult practices. Yağmur's work seeks to articulate viable methodologies of integrating text, image, and archaeology. Her research interests also include the contemporary history of gender relations and labour management in archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East.

Prior to joining UCL Yağmur held an Anniversary Fellowship at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, before which she was Assistant Director of the Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli (Turkey) and Research Associate of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Yağmur has excavated at numerous sites in Turkey, including Tell Atchana/Alalakh, Kinet Höyük, and Kilise Tepe. In 2015 she joined the Çadır Höyük Archaeological Project, where she is co-leading a renewed investigation of the 2nd-millennium occupation at this central Anatolian site.

Major publications

  • Heffron Y 2021 "Factoids of Assyrian presence in Anatolia: towards a historiography of archaeological interpretation at Kültepe-Kaneš" Anatolian Studies 71: 185-206. 
  • Heffron, Y. 2020 "Paraphernalia of Funerary Display at Kaneš: A Closer Look at Gold Eye- and Mouth-pieces." Archiv für Orientforschung 47/1: 81-22. 
  • Ross, J.C., G. McMahon, Y. Heffron, S.E. Adcock, S.R. Steadman, B.S. Arbuckle, A. Smith, M. von Baeyer 2019 "Anatolian Empires: Local Experiences from Hittites to Phrygians at Çadır Höyük." Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 7/3: 299-320. 
  • Heffron, Y. 2017 "Testing the Middle Ground in Assyro-Anatolian Marriages in the karum Period." Iraq 79: 71-83. 
  • Heffron, Y., A. Stone and M. Worthington (eds.) 2017, At the Dawn of History: Studies in Honour of J. Nicholas Postgate. Eisenbrauns: Winona Lake, INHeffron, Y. 2016, "Stone Stelae and Religious Space at Kültepe-Kaneš", Anatolian Studies 66:23-42 
  • Heffron, Y. 2014, "The Material Culture of Hittite 'God-drinking'", Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 14:164-85

For a full list of publications, see Yağmur's Iris profile.

Grants/projects

Since 2015 Yağmur has been part of the Çadır Höyük Archaeological Project in central Turkey.

Teaching